(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods used to fabricate semiconductor devices, and more specifically to a method used to integrate a gate insulator layer, comprised of a high dielectric constant (high k), material, into a CMOS device process sequence.
(2) Description of Prior Art
The advent of micro-miniaturization, or the ability to fabricate semiconductor devices with sub-micron features, has allowed device performance, as well as processing costs, to be reduced. The use of sub-micron features has resulted in reductions in performance degrading parasitic capacitances, while a greater amount of smaller semiconductor chips, comprised with sub-micron features, can now be obtained from a specific size substrate, thus reducing the processing cost for a specific semiconductor chip. The continuous scaling down of device dimensions necessitates the use of thinner gate insulator layers, and as the thickness of silicon dioxide layers used as a gate insulator layer decreases, integrity and leakage concerns, not present for gate insulator layers comprised of thicker silicon dioxide layers, become evident. The use of high k dielectric layers as gate insulator layers allow thicker layers to be used, with the thicker, high k dielectric layer supplying capacitances equal to thinner silicon oxide layers, or with the high k dielectric layer having an equivalent oxide thickness (EOT), equal to the thinner silicon dioxide counterpart layer. Therefore the use of high k dielectric layers, for gate insulator layer, will offer reduced leakage when compared to the thicker silicon dioxide gate insulator counterparts.
Metal oxide layers, such as aluminum oxide (Al2O3), zirconium oxide (ZrO2), and hafnium oxide (HfO2), are examples of high k dielectric layers, attractive as gate insulator layers for sub-micron devices, however the thermal stability of the metal oxide layers can be a problem when a gate metal insulator is formed prior to subsequent processing steps such as source/drain activation anneals, and metal silicide formation. The temperatures reached during these procedures can result in crystallization of the high k, metal oxide layer, resulting in undesirable gate leakage or shorts. This invention will describe a novel process procedure, and device structure, in which a high k, metal oxide layer is used as the device gate insulator layer, however formed and defined after high temperature anneals, and silicide formation procedures. Prior art, such as Wu, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,762, as well as Cha, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,329, describe methods of forming recessed elements in metal oxide semiconductor field effect (MOSFET), devices, however these prior arts do not describe the novel device process sequence, and novel process structure, illustrated in this present invention in which a device gate insulator layer, comprised of a high k, metal oxide layer, is integrated into a CMOS device process sequence after high temperature processes have been completed.